Let's Play Doom 0.5 - Part 1 - To Defeat an Enemy, Hit it Once.
0Download Link - https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/historic/doom0_5
After being worn down by the Doom 0.4 Alpha, I decide to give the 0.5 Alpha a chance since I have heard it has more playability. This version is significant for being the last version with Tom Hall as part of the team. Beyond a rough skim of information for controls and stuff that doesn't appear in-game, I have absolutely no idea what I am doing.
The GUI has the spinning logo from the previous alpha before reaching a menu that is pretty much identical to the final game's. We get a difficulty menu with a different easiest setting, though difficulties don't really matter in this version Most menu options do not work at this point, but we do get the ability to change screen size and mouse sensitivity. We also get a few quality options, though the high-quality ones cannot be selected by keyboard shortcut and cause the game to crash if selected. A big difference between this version and the last is the stability of the game in general, the engine does not cause the game to crash nor do any keyboard controls result in such issues seen in the previous alpha.
Instead of the engine crashing the game, particular levels have their own instabilities. This version is not really consistent in quality, some levels will be highly fleshed out while others are practically the same from the previous alpha. Many levels have an area that will result in crashes. All levels can be accessed by choosing a number at the menu like the previous alpha, though we also get the plus and minus keys in this version which allows for us to see levels after E1M9 without having to restart the game.
Levels that are fleshed out do indeed have some playability. You can now bump into enemies (though the first thing I find in-game is a glitch to phase through enemies) and can collect items. Ammo can be depleted for the various weapons. Enemies (or anything pickup) can also be destroyed, though death animations are not a thing and instead every enemy simply disappears after a single shot. Note that the Rifle will be the main weapon for killing enemies, the Bayonet cannot kill opponents. A functional Shotgun is seen in E2M7, but is otherwise not found in the game. We also have a Rocket Launcher in a few levels, though it pretty much is just a placeholder, it currently just looks like a Shotgun that cannot kill enemies. A Chainsaw is seen in E1M2, though it cannot be picked up.
The enemies are the same ones seen in the previous few alphas, with the Barons being brought back from 0.2 (note that enemies still don't attack you). We have various treasures, though the treasure bar doesn't work so they are pretty useless at the moment. Armor similarly is existent but does not function properly, plus only those with shoes can be picked up.
Switches function properly, plus doors are a lot more prevalent in this version. Locked doors are also a thing, keycards can be found scattered through the levels like the final version. Elevators work, which means we are not limited to parts of the level on the same plane as us. However, being able to climb onto higher surfaces does reveal the fact that we cannot drop to lower floors at this time, this is quite an annoying limitation. It is very easy to get stuck between moving surfaces and have to wait for something to move, or moving onto the wrong surface and having to restart a level. We can also exit levels and get to a alpha intermission screen, though most of the levels will simply return you to E2M2, meaning the level select feature is generally more useful. Also note that we have something I heavily missed from the previous version, the Automap.
We also get damaging floors... though not in the way one might expect. Only two levels have damaging floors, we also have health packs to restore any lost health, but only one of those involves nukage. The first damaging floor we encounter is near the start of the first level in a corner that really doesn't have any reason for being damaging. That level also has the damaging nukage. E2M3 has platforms crossing nukage to prevent injury, though it works backwards and the platforms injure while the nukage is safe. Beyond these few instances, the player can run on nukage without fear of injury.
Basically, this is 0.4 with some more functionality and a lot still used as placeholders. I can handle this version a bit more than 0.4 due to an automap and something happening in the levels, though the clunkiness of not being able to drop to a lower floor quickly gets on my nerves, as does the crashes of some of the later levels and the complete lack of opposition.
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